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Passage 3
Those who welcomed the railway saw it as more than a rapid and comfortable means of passing. They actually saw it as a factor in world peace. They did not foresee that the railway would be just one more means for the rapid movement of aggressive armies. None of them foresaw that the more were together — the more chances there are of war. Any boy or girl who is one of a large family knows that.
Whenever any new invention is put forward, those for it and those against it can always find medical men to approve or condemn. The anti-railway group produced doctors who said that tunnels would be most dangerous to public health: they would produce colds, catarrhs and consumptions. The deafening noise and the glare of the engine fire, would have a bad effect on the nerves. Further, being moved through the air at a high speed would do grave injury to delicate lungs. In those with high blood-pressure, the movement of the train might produce apoplexy. The sudden plunging of a train into the darkness of a tunnel, and the equally sudden rush into full daylight, would cause great damage to eyesight. But the pro-railway group was of course able to produce equally famous medical men to say just the opposite. They said that the speed and swing of the train would equalize the circulation, promote digestion, tranquilize the nerves, and ensure good sleep.
The actual rolling-stock was anything but comfortable. If it was a test of endurance to sit for four hours outside a coach in rain, or inside in dirty air, the railway offered little more in the way of comfort. Certainly the first-class carriages had cushioned seats; but the second-class had only narrow bare boards, while the third-class had nothing at all; no seats and no roof; they were just open trucks. So that third-class passengers gained nothing from the few mode except speed. In the matter of comfort, indeed they lost; they did, on the coaches, have a seat, but now they had to stand all the way, which gave opportunities to the comic press. This kind of thing: A man was seen yesterday buying a third-class ticket for the new London and Birmingham Railway. The state of his mind is being enquired into.
A writer in the early days of railways wrote feelingly of both second-and third-class carriages. He made the suggestion that the directors of the railways must have sent all over the world to find the hardest possible wood. Of the open third-class trucks he said that they had the peculiar property of meeting the rain from whatever quarter it came. He described them as horizontal shower-baths, from whose searching power there was no escape.
61. All boys and girls in large families know that ________.
A. a boy and a girl usually fight when they are together
B. people tend to be together more than they used to be
C. a lot of people being together makes fights likely
D. Railway leads the world to peace
62. According to those who welcomed the railway, the railway itself should include all the following except ________.
A. the railway enables people travel fast
B. the railway brings comfort to people
C. the railway makes the world peaceful
D. the railway leads the world to war as well.
63. According to the anti-railway group, all the followings are true but ________.
A. tunnels are dangerous to public health
B. the noise and the glare of the engine fire may affect people's nerves
C. the rapid speed through the air does damage to people's lungs
D. to those with high blood-pressure, the rapid speed of the train causes them to die
64. We may safely conclude that ________.
A. the author belongs to the anti-railway group
B. the author belongs to the for-railway group
C. the author speaks highly of the railway
D. the author may never take train because of its potential dangers
65. What is the tone of this passage?
A | practical | B | satirical | C | humorous | D | exaggerated |
Passage 4
The Myth of College
Many of you young persons out there are seriously thinking about going to college. (That is, of course, a lie. The only things you young persons think seriously about are loud music and sex. Trust me: these are closely related to college). College is basically a bunch of rooms where you sit for roughly two thousand hours and try to memorize things. The two thousand hours are spread out over four years; you spend the rest of the time sleeping and trying to get dates.
Basically, you learn two kinds of things in college:
Things you need to know later in life (two hours). These include how to make collect telephone calls and get beer and crepe-paper stains out of your pajamas.
Things you will not need to know in later life (1,998 hours). These are the things you learn in classes whose names end in -ology, -osophy, -istry, -ics, and so on. The idea is you memorize these things, then write them down in little exam books, then forget them. If you fail to forget them, you become a professor and have to stay in college for the rest of your life.
It's very difficult to forget everything. For example, when I was in college, I had to memorize — don't ask me why — the names of the metaphysical poets other than John Donne. I have managed to forget one of them, but I still remember that the other two were named Vaughan and Crashaw.
Sometimes, when I'm trying to remember something important, like whether my wife told me to get tuna packed in oil or tuna packed in water, Vaughan and Crashaw just pop up in my mind, right there in the supermarket. It's a terrible waste of brain cells. After you've been in college for a year or so, you're supposed to choose a major, which is the subject you intend to memorize and forget the most things about. Here is a very important piece of advice: be sure to choose a major that does not involve Known Facts and Right Answers.
This means that you must not major in mathematics, physics, biology or chemistry, because these subjects involve actual facts. If, for example, you major in mathematics, you're going to wander into class one day and the professor will say: "Define the cosine integer of the quadrant of the rhomboid binary axis, and extrapolate your result to five significant vertices." If you don't come up with exactly the answer the professor has in mind, you fail. The same is true of chemistry: if you write in your exam book that carbon and hydrogen combine to form oak, your professor will flunk you. He wants you to come up with the same answer he and all the other chemists have agreed on. Scientists are extremely snotty about this.
68. When should the college students choose a major?
A. The moment they go to college
B. After they have been in college for nearly two years
C. After they have been in college for a year or so
D. When they become a senior
69. The word “flunk” in the last paragraph means ________.
A | float | B | fail | C | ridicule | D | dupe |
70. What is the beat title for the passage?
A. The Myth of College
B. What Can You Learn in College?
C. How to Enjoy Your College Life
D. The Importance of College
参考答案：
65. 选B。文章第三段第二句提到，“如果对在雨中静坐，或在肮脏空气中站立4小时所忍受的程度做个测量，那么坐火车还是相对舒服些。”及最后一段“铁路作家在对二、三级车厢感同身受的描写中提到，建议乘务长应当满世界寻找最硬的木材。”我们不难看出，作者对铁路的描写带有明显的批判反讽的语气，satirical反讽的。practical客观的，humorous幽默的，exaggerated夸张的。
66. 缺。
67. 缺。
68. 选C。从第六段第三句话可以很容易地找到答案。
69. 选B。句义：如果你不记准老师课上讲的，考试就会不及格，这点在化学课上也是一样。因此不难断定，flunk应当是fail的近义词，flunk使……不及格；float漂浮；ridicule嘲弄；dupe愚弄、欺骗。
70. 选B。本文作者在第二段就开门见山地揭示了文章主题：大学生活必须学到两种东西，生活以及以后生活中用不到的知识。